Garmin nüvi 680 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator by Garmin
|
Our Price: $489.50 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $71.99 (click here) Category: GPS or Navigation System See more digital camera details and other models |
|---|
Digital camera reviews of Garmin nüvi 680 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Digital camera Review: Excellent product
Summary: 5 Stars
We are very happy with this product. It is easy to operate and has many capabilities. We shopped long and hard before deciding on this particular Garmin, and we weren't disappointed!Digital camera Review: Excellent...but...
Summary: 4 Stars
The screen is bright and very responsive to the touch. It has many options including the bluetooth technology to encourage handsfree cellphone use. The Nuvi 680 comes fully loaded with MSN Direct and all other accesories that other Nuvi models do not such as the leather case. Addresses are found with ease with some exceptions. One exception is finding FL-40 in the state of Florida. Type it whichever way you like and it won't find it. A great improvement in the future would be to copy the turn by turn routes given by services such as Mapquest. The Nuvi navigator does NOT find the most appropriate route in certain instances. Quickest route and shortest route not necesarily mean the same thing, but the Nuvi seems not to know that as of yet. Perhaps in a future update. Outside of the minor shortcomings, the Nuvi 680 is the most complete in its family vs. cost. If the fancy extras do not interest you, then perhaps you should consider the Nuvi 260W. The two models are identical in the basic features such as spoken street names and screen size. Garmin has done it right.Digital camera Review: Fantastic
Summary: 5 Stars
I have enjoyed this device greatly in my recent travels. It has been invaluable in business. It has also been wonderful on weekend "leisure" trips. When I take those trips I love to avoid the highways. I can set the avoidances in the navigation menu to try to avoid highways and it'll keep me off the interstates and more on the backroads. I've discovered some great restaurants this way! If I'm on a timetable, though, I just tell it to take the highways and I'm off on the fast track. It can route differently, depending on timetable and situation. In short I would be lost without it now that I own one. The only thing I don't like is the suction cup mount for the windshield. It does not hold that great or long, but there are alternatives.Digital camera Review: Far from perfect...
Summary: 3 Stars
If you've never owned a mobile GPS before, this unit may seem like the greatest thing since sliced bread. Granted, it does have lots of nice NON-GPS related features (like MP3 or photo album), but after having owned a Street Pilot III, and several handheld GPS units, I find the Nuvi 680 quite lacking in good old-fashioned GPS functionality.
Let me explain.
I do use it in my car, but many times drag out the older Street Pilot, which does a far better job, especially when I need to track my route. There are no tracking features in the Nuvi, so I can't hook it up to my PC after a vacation and see where I've been.
I also can't upload any routes to the NUVI. I do a lot of geocaching, and plan my routes ahead of time. Instead of just punching in the route and telling it to go, I have to look up the next POI (point of interest) and send it there. Then look up the next one, and so on. Quite cumbersome.
Speaking of waypoints, they can be loaded from the PC in 2 different ways, to 2 different locations. One is by using the "POI Loader" program provided free of charge via a Garmin download. This is the best way, but has one major drawback - you can't see the POI's on the screen until you search for one, then go to it. To access these waypoints, go to "Extras", then to "Custom POIs". The POI loader will delete all your old POIs before installing new ones.
The other way is to download directly from Map Source, Garmin's proprietery mapping program. The nice thing is that you can see these custom locations on the screen. Access is through the "Favorites" button. The downfalls here are that you can only delete one at a time, so if you bring in 300 custom geocaching waypoints, you will have to remove them one at a time... unless you know how to start the unit in Utility mode (press the upper left corner of the screen while turning the unit on). Then the only choice you have is to delete "all" your data, including custom locations, and any other location data you have put in (Fodders), plus many of your other setup choices. So you have to set your choices up all over again. Massive pain!
I do give it 3 stars, though, because of all the other nice features it has. I won't go into detail here because the rest of the reviewers have covered them. Despite it's geocaching and other GPS drawbacks, it is still a good unit for the average driver on the road, and is very easy to use. All in all, if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have purchased the Nuvi 680, and would have stayed with my Street Pilot III.
Digital camera Review: First GPS
Summary: 4 Stars
UPDATE TO ORIGINAL POST - STILL HAPPY WITH THE PRODUCT PERFORMANCE BUT THE FM TRANSMITTER IS A FLAT OUT DUD. CONSIDERING WHERE TECHNOLOGY IS TODAY IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE THAT THIS IS THE WEAKEST LINK. EVERYTHING FROM MY PREVIOUS REVIEW STILL STANDS .....Did a tremendous amount of research before buying and this model had highest rate of satisfaction based on what I read. I have had this for about a month and I am still in evaluation. Very easy to use right out of the box. Not the newest version but it will get you from point A to B and in between with no problems. POI's well appointed. Bright clear touch screen very responsive. However couple of sore spots, FM transmitter is poor, hard to lock in on the stations.....hope they fixed this on newer models and to getting back to home screen you must page back through ALL the pages. The speaker intensity could be louder. For what ever reason the international languages come through louder that the American. The Bluetooth was easy to configure but the internal mic and speaker could use a boost, however conversation was clear with the FM transmitter active. Over all very pleased and will post additional comments in 6 months.